If you had any question whose side Republican Congress is on, now you know: the side of big business and the telemarketers.
From today's Chicago Trib:
Illinois officials say they want to stop companies from selling private telephone records without the consent of consumers, and they want to know how brokers got those records in the first place.
But even as Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan work to prevent privacy invasion at the state level, some fear Congress may take steps to weaken related identity theft laws already on the books in Illinois and elsewhere. Consumer advocates are preparing to join the fight on both fronts.
"It's important that customers be able to properly protect themselves," said Brian Imus, senior policy advocate with the Illinois Public Interest Research Group. "Our privacy shouldn't be for sale."
In Congress, watchdogs are fighting a measure that they say would gut state laws requiring companies to notify consumers whenever their information security has been breached. As currently crafted, they contend, the proposal would require notification only when there's a good chance personal information has fallen into the wrong hands.
